Hamidou Diallo Lends Helping Hand for WidowStory by Jimmy Do | okcthunder.com
Being a pasta lover, Hamidou Diallo reminisced about eating mac and cheese along with turkey as his go-to dishes for Thanksgiving. His fondest memories include playing cards while his parents traded funny stories of Diallo's childhood serving as a family-favorite pastime.
A Sunday afternoon gave the Thunder rookie the chance to help out with Thanksgiving plans for a family in Yukon.
Diallo and the James family stocked up on dinner items and moments to remember, courtesy of Homeland. Grocery shopping with Octavia James and her family had stirred his heart.
"It makes me feel great to do something uplifting and make the next person smile," said Diallo. "It was a great experience to help them shop."
Diallo learned that James' husband passed away two years ago leaving her to raise her five children. The challenges of working as a single parent for James included 3 a.m. wakeup calls, which became necessary in order to make sure her kids had lunch prepared on limited resources and went to school on time.
By the end of the day, the surprise shopping spree along with an extra $500 moved the widow to tears.
"It helps me to where I don't have to stress about feeding them," said James. "For somebody to do that for us, it makes me want to cry."
"I'm the vet right now telling the kids what the league is like. Hopefully, they can be in this league one day."
Hamidou Diallo
Watch: Diallo Goes Grocery Shopping